NOVEL WEB Chapter 88
Chapter 88. Will
“So, the performance for the first-year students at the school festival will be a competition between Class A and Class B.”
After the meeting, in homeroom.
At the words of Hermes, who had become the representative, Class B erupted in murmurs.
And, instantly realized.
Ah──this year’s school festival. We’re going to be made into a public spectacle, a show of execution.
We, gathered from viscount and baron families, versus Class A, filled with those of higher status. In this country, that difference manifests as a difference in magic.
We already painfully understood from previous magic drills and our treatment at the academy that no matter how we struggle, we have no chance of winning.
So, almost all of Class B was ready to accept that fate without the will to resist.
“So──”
Therefore.
“I would like to explain how we can win. Is that alright?”
At that single word from him.
Almost the entire class doubted their ears.
“…Wait, Hermes.”
The voice was Albert von Yelk.
The student who had always challenged him since his transfer spoke up first this time as well.
Hearing this, the other students felt relieved.
Ah, Albert has spoken up again.
This time, even he must see that the transfer student’s claim is unreasonable. Surely, he will stop him.
We’re tired of this. Please stop disrupting the academy any further. Why won’t you leave?
With such feelings of hostility towards Hermes and expectations towards Albert, they watched the exchange.
Whether he knew it or not, Albert asked Hermes seriously.
“If I didn’t mishear──did you just say how we can win?”
“Yes.”
“…Do you think there’s a chance for us to win? For this Class B, against that Class A?”
“I intend to explain that now.”
“…”
At the unhesitating reply, Albert fell silent for a while.
“…Alright. Continue.”
Ignoring the stunned students, he took his seat and urged him with his gaze to proceed.
“Then, first for Class B──”
“Wa-wait!”
As he was about to continue, another voice stopped him from a different direction.
Standing up was another male student.
He glared at Hermes with a look of surprise, urgency, and a bit of hostility.
“Win, you say? Don’t joke around, that’s impossible!”
“I haven’t explained anything yet, why do you think so?”
“Shut up! Who are you, anyway, a mere transfer student, to come here and stir things up? Just stop doing strange things already!”
“…”
It was the same kind of remark Albert had made before.
But this time, Hermes took it calmly.
“…Let me ask the opposite.”
Calmly, he asked a question.
“Why are you so stubbornly refusing to listen to what I have to say?”
“…!”
“The match against Class A is already decided. And as you know, we’ll certainly lose if we fight as we are now. …So, regardless of whether it’s true or not, don’t you think you should at least listen to my suggestion of a way to win?”
“Th-that’s──”
“──Ahem, Hermes.”
Interrupting the stammering male student was Nina, who sat at the back right of the classroom.
“I don’t really want to say this, but I can guess, so I’ll answer for them.
──They don’t want to try.”
At her harsh words, it wasn’t just the male student.
Several other students responded with grimaces or looked down, indicating they had an idea of what she meant.
“Because they think it’s impossible anyway. So they don’t want to waste effort on something futile. They’d rather lose without trying and keep some excuse, saying it couldn’t be helped.”
“…”
“Yeah, you can disdain them. …I can sympathize a bit because I know what Class B has been through in the first term, but you don’t know that.”
“…Are you saying that’s bad?”
Taking Nina’s words, the male student spoke as if squeezing out the words.
“You’re different! Everyone knows that commoner is a monster, that he doesn’t belong in Class B!
He’s a chosen person, unlike us! That’s why he can say such things because he’s never lost──”
“Oh? Never lost? Hermes?”
“…!”
Not letting those words slide, Nina spoke with quiet anger.
“If you still think that after watching our first drill interaction──I’d seriously despise you.”
They should have seen it by now.
Hermes doesn’t fear challenges because he’s never lost. He can move forward by taking the experience of defeat and the accompanying frustration as nourishment. He still holds what they’ve lost.
“I…was envious.”
To the now-silent male student, a voice spoke from another direction.
Sara, with a sincere expression, continued.
“Watching Hermes and Nina’s battle──I thought it was beautiful. Amazing, and I wished I could be like that. …Didn’t some of you feel that way too?”
As someone who observed the class from an outside perspective, she spoke with near certainty.
It’s true. At that moment, everyone was undoubtedly captivated by that scene.
No one──absolutely no one, didn’t feel a shred of admiration then.
“…I’m sorry. I’m the one who insisted on keeping Hermes. If you have complaints, direct them at me first. He reached out to us. …So this time, can’t you all reach out to him?”
Silence filled the classroom.
If anyone else had said the same words, they might have dismissed it as nonsense.
But it was none other than Sara.
Since her enrollment, she had been praised as a genius with dual aptitudes, as a saint. Even though she was approached by noble people and noticed by the second prince, she never became arrogant. She always stood by and supported each one of them, who were considered failures.
Her earnest plea couldn’t be easily dismissed──they couldn’t be that shameless.
Persuaded by someone who represented the class, their attention returned to Hermes.
Sensing this, Hermes took a few seconds to consider what to say──and then addressed a particular person.
“Albert.”
“…What?”
“Please do the usual.”
“!? H-here?”
“Yes. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it smoothly.”
Despite being puzzled by Hermes’ request, Albert nodded surprisingly obediently.
And──he raised his magical power and began chanting.
“…’Gather, southern wind Notos; Tear, northern wind Boreas; Reach the godless wind’s end’… Bloodline Magic──[Aiolus]!”
Unexpectedly, he activated bloodline magic within the classroom.
Ignoring the students who widened their eyes in shock──Albert mercilessly fired a wind cannonball at Hermes.
“!”
Even bloodline magic, with its tremendous power, approached Hermes.
But he calmly blocked it with a wall of light. The wall shattered due to the difference in power, but he caught the diminished strike with crossed arms, spun in the air with the momentum, and landed gracefully.
Shaking his arms to dispel the numbness, he spoke with a hint of surprise.
“──Well done. Your power has increased a bit.”
“…Shut up. Don’t talk like that after easily blocking it with common magic.”
The classmates were stunned.
Hermes’ calm handling of the bloodline magic was impressive, but what shocked them more was Albert.
Was his magic always that strong?
The answer came as a further shock from Hermes’ mouth.
“Albert has been undergoing training I devised for him since a few days ago.”
The class was enveloped in surprise again.
It made sense that they couldn’t believe Hermes’ claims. So first──they needed to see proof to believe.
This demonstration was meant to provide that. It seemed to have been more effective than expected.
With some credibility added to his words──he continued.
“Now. Regarding the psychological aspects towards me, Nina and Sara are probably more knowledgeable──so I’ll say just one thing.”
He glanced around the classroom and said,
“──Don’t you feel frustrated?”
It was a simple but piercing question.
“Despite having high aspirations and entering this academy with great enthusiasm, you were oppressed by the entire academy and forced to give up. I’m sorry, but I got fed up with it in a week. I admire your endurance for putting up with it for half a year.”
He continued with slightly provocative words, then paused.
“But, I don’t want to believe you’ve completely given up. I want to believe that my stay in the capital has meaning. …I want to believe that this country is starting to change compared to when my master was here.”
Perhaps for the first time, he revealed his true feelings, then asked once more.
“So, I ask again.──Don’t you feel frustrated?”
“──Of course I do!!”
The first to respond was the male student who had confronted Hermes earlier.
“If you stay silent, they do whatever they want! If you feel nothing after this treatment, you’re no longer human!”
“That’s right! Do you think you’re the only one fed up with this!?”
“We have pride, we have will! Don’t act like you know anything about us!”
“…Indeed. That’s why I intend to learn about you from now on.”
Receiving words of determination one after another, he murmured.
It was, in a sense, his change.
A step towards engaging with those other than his closest friends.
“Since you feel that way, let me say it more directly.”
Aware of this, Hermes reiterated.
“──I’m offering you a chance to strike back at Class A. If you want that, listen to what I have to say.”
Their response was a silent affirmation.
Seeing that, Hermes felt relieved.
…Ah, these people. It was close, but it seems they weren’t completely abandoned.
They hadn’t yet become like those nobles.
Accepting everything without will. Becoming something not quite human.
They still had desires and wishes──they were qualified to be magicians.
“…Then, once again.”
Feeling that deeply, Hermes took a breath.
“Presumptuous as it may be, in the spirit of the academy.──Let’s start the ‘lecture’.”